BASF and Evolva enter into a collaboration to develop compounds applied to protect crops

Rheinach 7 March 2011 - BASF SE, Ludwigshafen (Germany) and Evolva Holding SA, Reinach (Switzerland) today announced that they have signed an agreement for joint research on the design of novel and optimised biosynthesis routes for selected natural products with crop protection potential.

“The collaboration with Evolva underlines BASF’s approach to employ cutting edge biotechnology for the development of new specialty products,” said Harald Lauke, President of the Specialty Chemicals Research at BASF.

The collaboration will initially cover two projects. BASF will pay Evolva an up-front technology access fee and ongoing research fees. BASF will have responsibility to take forward compounds produced during the collaboration and will potentially pay Evolva research and development milestone fees as well as royalties on products that result from the collaboration.

This is Evolva’s first collaboration in which its technology is applied to the agricultural sector.

Neil Goldsmith, CEO & Managing Director of Evolva, said “We’re very pleased to be working with BASF. This collaboration provides further validation of the ability of our technology platform to impact multiple industries. This also adds to Evolva’s goal to improving food quality and helps advance the health and nutrition of individuals.”

About Evolva Holding SA

Evolva (SIX: EVE) is an international, innovative synthetic biology company with a world-class research platform. Evolva strives to improve people’s lives by applying its technology and other resources to the discovery and development of new products and processes that benefit the health, well-being and financial economy of patients, consumers and partner companies around the world. Evolva uses biosynthetic and evolutionary technologies to artificially create and optimise small molecule compounds and their production routes. Our approach differs from that of the mainstream in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. We have discovery partnerships ongoing both in pharma and industrial areas. In addition we have a pipeline of promising compounds aimed at infectious and cardio-renal indications.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and agricultural products to oil and gas. As a reliable partner BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of about €63.9 billion in 2010 and had approximately 109,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN).

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